…because it isn't "just a picture"

Menu

One Click to Support Your Copyright Protection

I spent the day reviewing my business and marketing. One of the conclusions I came to was that it was a vital necessity for photographers to devote some of our time to supporting those activities that keep the industry professional, healthy and profitable. There are simply too many who seek to eliminate our right to profit from the work we create to do nothing.

I turned back to my email to find a message from the Copyright Alliance. It seems Google and the Electronic Frontiers Foundation EFF have launched an attack on copyright under the guise of keeping the web free. I’ve always wondered how it is that Google and similar organizations can stand before the world and say the work we create should be free for the taking when they, themselves, do not allow any of what they create to be available to the world at all. Don’t believe me? Just try to get your hands on Google’s code for building a search engine. Or, worse, get your hands on it and publish it and see what they do to you for the breach of their rights.

Copyright is valuable. That is why it is under constant attack. And without it, we cannot profit from our work.

The Copyright Alliance has made it possible to send a letter to your elected officials urging them to protect our right to earn a living in one simple click. It is well worth taking a moment to do so. The message is:

“You create it, you own it.”

“For creators, copyright serves as a foundation, a building block for a thriving and ever expanding market of cultural, educational, and scientific works, one that in 2012 contributed over one trillion dollars to the U.S. economy and directly employed over 5 million workers. As Congress reviews copyright law, we ask that it keeps creators and their rights front and center because their contributions benefit us all.”